The exhibition of sacred places, composed of photographs by Ara Güler, Kamil Fırat, Manuel Çıtak, Orhan Cem Çetin, Murat Germen, and Ani Çelik Arevyan, has opened at the Teşvikiye Milli Reasürans Art Gallery. The exhibition will remain on view until December 28.

This exhibition addresses the dynamics that nurture Istanbul’s multicultural character and that will also influence its future climate of belief. The works presented in the exhibition offer a perspective shaped by a project that focuses on Istanbul’s sacred spaces in line with this aim.

The project, which is accompanied by the publication of a book, is advised by Prof. Dr. Afife Batur, who contributed to the “Istanbul: World City” project of the History Foundation. Prepared with the support of the Istanbul Kadıköy Rotary Club, coordinated by Amélie Edgü, director of the Milli Reasürans Art Gallery, and managed by Murat Ural, the project is also supported by the German Cultural Center.

In a statement made by the project management regarding the purpose of the exhibition, the following remarks are included: “Istanbul and Jerusalem differ from other historically and religiously significant cities in that the troubled and divergent paths of the three major monotheistic religions coexist within them. This situation is the result of Istanbul’s three-thousand-year history and its geography, positioned at the boundary of two continents or at the point where two different worlds meet. Throughout its history, Istanbul has been a city where people from various regions, tribes, and nations have gathered. Particularly during the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, when empires whose dominions spanned three continents made the city their capital, Istanbul developed as a kind of microcosm reflecting the territories over which these empires ruled.”

The city was first shaped by pagan influences, later by Christian and Muslim ones. The historical names of the city reflect these periods as well: Byzantion symbolizes paganism, Constantinople Christianity, and Istanbul Islam. Yet in every era, other beliefs maintained their presence, sometimes resulting in conflict, sometimes in reconciliation. Undoubtedly, the dominant culture often prevailed over others, but it also brought change along with it.

In fact, Istanbul and Jerusalem serve as examples of the meeting of religions. Muslims who advanced from Africa to the Iberian Peninsula established the state of al-Andalus, while Christians, accompanied by Jews, settled in the same region by following similar routes. However, this “encounter” came to an end when the Catholic Kingdom of Spain expelled Arabs and Jews from the peninsula.

The statement also notes that when the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 were accepted by the Ottoman Empire, the existing Jewish life in the city was enriched, thereby turning the city into a center where the three major monotheistic religions gathered together.

“Before Christianity was accepted as the official religion of the Roman Empire in A.D. 392, the city experienced more than a thousand years of pagan, that is, polytheistic life. Pagan beliefs, originating from Ancient Greece, merged with local traditions. When the city came under Roman rule in A.D. 146, the influence of Latin culture, which would last for 250 years, began. However, after the establishment of the Byzantine Empire, the fate of the city was shaped by Christianity, and this new belief system gradually came to dominate the city.”

Nevertheless, Latin influence persisted in the city during every period. Thus, Rome of that era was not limited solely to Latin culture; it encompassed all of Eastern and Western Christianity and thereby gained a sacred character. After the Ottomans conquered the city, a similar situation applied to Islam, and especially with the establishment of the Caliphate, the city became a center for the Muslim world. During this time, Jews remained a minority under Ottoman rule, yet despite this, they became influential in political and economic spheres by making use of the advantages brought by arrivals from Europe. With the continuation of Ottoman rule in Jerusalem and Palestine, the fate of the Jews became closely tied to Istanbul.

The statement goes on to explain that throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages, the city’s faiths experienced rapid and productive interaction. Istanbul’s diversity is described as a privilege compared to other cities of the world, and throughout history this diversity enriched the city socially, culturally, and economically. The message of the project is announced as “Istanbul, a symbol of living together, trust, and peaceful coexistence.”

In the project text, the sacred portraits of Istanbul, presented alongside its historical development, are visualized through photographs by Ara Güler, Manuel Çıtak, Kamil Fırat, Murat Germen, Cem Çetin, and Ani Çelik Arevyan. This important project adopts an approach that seeks answers to the question it raises: “Is it easy to define Istanbul’s richness of belief?”

The reality that faith communities that lived together peacefully for centuries have, over the past forty years, come under threat from rising—or deliberately intensified—chauvinistic tendencies does not align with the portrait of tolerance and multicultural society drawn by history. Minorities whose numbers have significantly declined due to long-standing negative developments have now lost places of worship through which they could have contributed more to this “encounter.”

The changes in the balances of this multicultural society, refined over centuries, can in fact be considered one of the causes of today’s social and political problems. The images of mosques and churches reflected through the lenses of master photographers—often standing side by side or in close proximity—help us to find answers to these problems and questions.